The present invention relates to an anti-decubitus pneumatic mattress. More particularly, the present invention relates to an anti-decubitus pneumatic mattress that is adapted to replaceably overlay a conventional mattress of a bed and have a patient lie thereon and be moved in preselected ways so as to prevent the patient from having skin breakdowns, and which prevents the patient from falling off the bed when the patient is turning, and which further prevents the patient from bottoming out on a low side of the turning, while being suspended in a cushion of static air if power fails.
1. Description of the Prior Art
A disadvantage of a conventional mattress is that after relatively short periods of time the patient becomes subject to bed sores and tissue degradation. This is particularly a problem when the patient cannot, or may not, exercise, even for a short time. Local massage is a palliative measure and not very economical nor effective for long term patients.
Some patients require mattresses which extend the entire length of their bodies, while in other cases the turning movement of the patient is restricted to certain regions, for example the seat. It is sometimes also necessary to exempt a certain region of the patient's body from the lifting pressure exerted by the mattress's air chambers.
An attempt to overcome these problems has been to provide a pneumatic air mattress. A later attempt has been to provide an air mattress by which the patient may be caused to turn periodically and thereby relieve stress on the body. A problem, however, with these known devices is that the frequency of inflation and deflation of the chambers, together with the lack of patient body movement, is often not sufficient to prevent skin breakdown.
In our U.S. Pat. No. 5,394,577, we attempt to overcome these problems by teaching a therapeutic anti-decubitus lateral rotation mattress, which is incorporated herein by reference. As shown in FIG. 1, the mattress 10 includes a plurality of pairs of inflatable air cells 12 disposed on opposite sides of a longitudinal axis 14 and arranged along the length of a bed. Each cell of the plurality of pairs of inflatable air cells 12 extends substantially transverse to the longitudinal axis 14 and are supplied with air so that cells of the plurality of pairs of inflatable air cells 12 on alternate sides are inflated, while cells of the plurality of pairs of inflatable air cells 12 on the other side are simultaneously deflated. An upper layer 16 of a resinous foam pad is provided on which the patient lies. The upper layer 16 is provided with a groove 18 along its longitudinal axis for comfort of the patient. The mattress 10 is completed by a covering 20 that has an upper sheet member 22 that is removably attached to a lower sheet member 24 so that when soiled it may be easily removed.
Although our patent appears to overcome these problems of the prior discussed supra, it only allows the patient to be turned in alternative directions, without allowing different portions of the patient to be alternatively raised and lowered. It does not prevent the patient from falling off the bed when the patient is turning, or does it prevent the patient from bottoming out on the low side of the turning, or be suspended in a cushion of static air, if power fails.